Gerald had seen them turn up in the massive land yacht and had been suitably impressed. Initially he had been worried that they had nowhere to store such an ostentatious craft but was relieved to watch it collapse down.

He had, out of character, rather shyly approached the Mitchells and asked if he could join them on the journey to the academy annex, he had never had the opportunity to be on such a vehicle. He was now behind the steering wheel as the others relaxed on the sofas on the upper deck while they smoothly powered down the causeway.

“You ok up there Gerald?” Kyra asked.

“Oh I’m fine thankee Ms Mitchell, living out some boyhood fantasy of sailing but on land.”

[I know it’s not an important issue right now but we need to talk about the guild offers at some point.] Teddy said on the interface, keeping it private so as not to bother Gerald.

[I’m still unclear what they do for us? We get enough contracts as it is.] James said

[It’s not so much about the contracts, I did a little digging into this and why we would want to join at this stage. Seems to be more like taking out insurance, the guilds cast out a wide net to get as many people that are above their quality line, the deeds of those people add prestige to the organisation and curry political favour. In return the individuals or teams get an organisation that will mentor them, that adds to their prestige when they’re just starting out and a bank of political favour that they can bargain to cash in.] Lucy explained.

[So you’re saying if we join now then they’ll help us out in the hope we’ll do something impressive?] Kyra clarified.

[That’s essentially it, there’s also a social factor to it, some of these guilds have branches all over the planet and therefore people you can turn to all over. Some of the high magic areas are also more fussy about handing out contracts, we’re lucky that they build the academy annex here because Greenstone is a very low magic density area that attracts very few adventurers. That means that they’re just happy the contracts get done and are glad to have people do them. If they ever got a silver rank contract then they would send out one of the two or three silvers they have in the city, in a big, high magic city there would be competition for a tasty contract. Being part of a guild makes you more competitive for the good contracts.]

They were approaching the Geller estates which the Annex sat on and they could see the gates looming ahead.

[All right, everyone has the list of the guilds that offered us slots with the notes we made at the time, have a look and we’ll have another chat about this before the end of the week.] Teddy said, getting up to stand behind Gerald to coach him into parking the massive vehicle.

They left Gerald on board, they said they were happy to let him take it back to the villa as during the last few weeks they had been busy and built a second dune buggy that collapsed into the other side of the drop deck on the back so they could all travel back comfortably. Teddy was still grumpy about losing his amulet that kept out the sand, Lucy had been scraping together the materials to build him one and they had all voted to use it on the second buggy. Gerald had been more than happy to stay rather than drive it back on his own and had headed down to the middle deck to play in the on-board kitchen.

The team made their way to the gate, the Geller family were prolifically known worldwide, there were rumours about the church of fertility and them but they hadn’t heard the detail. They sent their young scions from all over back to Greenstone and had done for generations, here they were taught fundamentals of adventuring, giving them the space to stretch out their legs and prove themselves. As well as being given opportunities to show courage and daring against monsters solo they were also shown the other side of the coin; duty, humility and discipline. The front gate was being manned by two Gellers. They didn’t recognise them so the process took a little longer than the usual getting waved through, they had to sign in to state the purpose of their visit, show a record of having bid for the mirage chamber and been allocated a slot, then the boys had to sign the girls in as there was no ‘official’ reason for them being there. They all had their badges checked and were allowed through into the grounds.

[Well damn. They were thorough, I thought we were going to have to fight if they pulled out a probe.] James put on the interface.

[Just doing their job, they’re new here so the ‘death and destruction, shame on the house and disownment for disappointment’ speech they get given is probably is still ringing in their ears.] Lucy replied.

[We’ve got time before our slot starts, check out the training grounds?] Teddy said.

There was a round of agreement and they all started heading over to the main square where there was the most action, it was where trainees could open spar across the intakes and there were always instructors or guest experts to give insight.

They were shocked into standstill all of a sudden, forcefully projecting auras and readying power and weapons to use. A wave of fire had erupted into the air in the near distance in front of them, blasting into the air with light and heat.

[Lucy, anything from Lechuza?] Teddy checked.

[No she says it’s just the normal from the square, trainees and an instructor, no mass fight.]

They all relaxed their auras.

[She says there is some sort of demo, they’re all watching one fight.]

Teddy looked up and squinted, he could barely see the speck that was Lechuza way up high.

They made their way to the square to hopefully see what the demo was, as they came through the last overgrown arch they found everyone in the crowd looking at them.

[Well this isn’t awkward at all.] James said.

“Ah, good, I thought it was you lot from that little aura burst.” Daishō came strolling towards them.

He was wearing wide trousers that could have passed for a wide skirt, a wide brimmed belt held a pair of training swords and his boyish chest was bare. He was grinning at his friends.

“Well we forgot where we were for a moment, having left the academy seeing bursts of flame in the air is cause to suit up.” James replied.

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

“Suit up… I have missed your turn of phrase Mitchell James. We were demonstrating using indirect attacking of powers to feint an enemy.”

“Looky over here while I slap you from over here?”

“Quite.”

“Or I shoot massive burst of flame over here and stab you in the kidney?”

“Just so.”

“You know Teddy does something similar with his rift power you know…”

“Hard to demonstrate without people losing fingers though.” Teddy interjected.

“Oh go on, show them.”

“No.”

“Go on!”

“I said no.”

“Puuuurleeeease!”

“Eurgh.”

Teddy went to shove James hard in an obvious way and James sidestepped. As he did Teddy blurred and caught the front of James’ robes to stop him just before he dodge-sidestepped straight into a narrow rift. Teddy had hidden the departure end of the rift behind his back before he shoved his brother causing him to move into the arrival rift.

“Misdirection, anticipating reaction. Checkmate.”

The small crowd that was watching Daishō’s lesson clapped at the demo.

“Students take note, a wonderful example, Dimension powers are expensive and rare, monsters that use such powers are exotic. Focus your mind on intent as well as action, in a fight it is rarely straight forward and both sides will be playing each other and waiting for advantage, whether it is the subtle.” He indicated at Teddy. “Or the obvious.”

He pulled a training sword and turned to James, he whipped the sword from pointing at James’s nose, sweeping it down past his side and up behind himself, the edge of the blade glowed red hot and the huge scarlet and gold flames erupted out the back and up. James was following the flames and didn’t notice the smaller sword in Daishō’s other hand sneak up under his chin. Daishō had to stand on tip-toes and the tip only just reached but the point was made.

James staggered back a few steps.

[Why me?]

The lesson was over and the crowd of trainees either dispersed or grouped to discuss or spar in the square. Daishō tucked his swords away and bowed to James. He quickly fetched his tunic, sandals and steel swords from a bench at the side. He replaced the training swords in a cabinet then hurried back over to see his friends.

“Why have I not seen you all in so long?!” He said excitedly.

“Well because whenever we’re in town you are either hunting or teaching!” Teddy answered as they made their way to a seating area off to one side.

“Ah it is so. But my activity is shadowed by your own until recently. The amount of contracts you closed on your way back from Vitesse was impressive.”

The Mitchells all looked at each other before answering.

“Yes we had quite a busy way home. And we’re trying to beat that record soon” Lucy said trying to change the conversation.

“There were many rumours that your exploits on the way back from Vitesse were more than what is in the official record.” Daishō probed.

“Yes the official record that no one should be looking beyond. Anyway, Daishō what have you been up to? You are of course your families latest prodigy, tell us of your adventures.”

The stern professional face of the little master disappeared as he was now talking to his closest friends from their time in the academy the persona he had now was just a little boy who got to play hero killing monsters and telling his friends. They don’t think they could have stopped him if they wanted to.

The girls got pulled away by Rashid who spotted them and wanted to catch up about Charlie in the desert. Teddy got politely asked to show more of his dimension essence powers by some of the trainees who saw the demo and he soon had them bent double on the centre of the square suffering from dimension sickness.

James and Daishō were drinking hot tea from James’ inventory. It had been delivered by a pair of snakes lowering their tails from the tree above, unseen before the steaming cups lowered. Daishō had just told a particularly daring story of a woman he had saved from a rock elemental before the keen light left his eyes and he went quiet. He had been going through chronologically and had obviously come to a story that was hard to tell.

“Daishō, what’s wrong?”

“I… Nothing, it is not something you need to hear.”

“It’s important to open up, my team is lucky because we’re all family and we have no choice and we have to listen to each other. Being on your own it’s important you have someone to offload to, doesn’t have to be me but I’m here to listen if you need.”

Daishō looked at him intently. The body may have been a young boy but circumstance had forced him to grow old beyond his years and the depths of his eyes showed.

“My first contract that was not against monsters. A test I think. The families in Greenstone requested parameters that aligned for me to chase down thieves. I do no know what their intentions were, maybe to disrepute the annex or the societies decision to allow me to join. When I tracked down the gang I attempted to take them into custody. They were mostly iron rank and without training, some didn’t even have a full set of essences. I know now that they saw a little boy in front of them and would not come quietly. What I did not think was that they would rather not come at all. Every one of them forced me to kill them. With all my skill I could not subdue them and the contract was not for live capture.”

He stared at the bottom of his now empty teacup.

“Sounds like you didn’t have much choice there buddy. I’m not a fan of the ‘just following orders’ defence when it comes to killing people, but I’m not against killing people when they need killing. We’ve not had to do this yet and luckily the only person we’ve had to fight so far we were able to capture. But there is something to be said for trying to do all the things right. There was a wise man of honour from my universe, a warrior that simply said ‘If someone ever tries to kill you, you try and kill ‘em right back!’.”

Daishō looked up from his cup.

“I suppose, I did not go there to kill those men, but I could not let them get away and they would not lay down arms.” He handed the cup to James and bowed. “Thankyou Mitchell James, I have not spoken to anyone about this and it has been weighing against my soul. I hope you do not think less of me for questioning the right path.”

“It’s the ones that never question that they’re on the right path you need to watch out for in my opinion.”

They both got up as Teddy and the girls headed back over. They’d been free for a while but had the sense to see that the others were having a serious discussion and didn’t want to interrupt.

“Hey, you guys ok?” Teddy asked.

“Yes Mitchell Theodore, I was conflicted but your brother has given me advice from a warrior from your universe that has helped.”

“Oh gods, who did you talk about now?” Teddy asked James.

“Malcolm Reynolds of course.”

“…Really? A friend is in need and you quote a space pirate at him? But that does give me an idea…”

“Well it seemed to be what he needed to hear, if you have a problem with it I swear by my pretty floral bonnet, I will end you.”

Teddy shook his head and walked away towards the mirage chamber. The girls followed just after with Daishō and James following behind.

“A space pirate Mitchell James?”

“Yeh that probably falls into the category of things we’re not allowed to really explain.” James answered.

When they got to the mirage chamber they entered a room with tiered rows of seating that looked at the view screen, beyond saw a group of people in the room with the stone beds that users laid on to enter the mirage chamber. They were noticed by the group and they filed past each other, they shook hands with a few of the instructors in passing with promises to catch up after their slot. The group didn’t exit the building but stopped in the seating area to finish their debrief.

Lucy was the most comfortable with the system of crystals and started setting up a scenario for the boys. Whilst she went through the lengthy process the others were explaining the land yacht to Daishō.

“And so it’s pretty amazing, but it really does need a name.” Kyra said.

“I will think on this, but I feel you will want to name it something that is pertinent to yourselves.”

“Funny you should say that, I’ve had an idea recently.” Teddy said.

“Me too.” James quickly said. “I was thinking of the Nebuchadnezzar, you know, a ship thats known in our universe. A ship that sails between the real world and the fantasy, carrying those who hold the fate of the world in their hands.”

“I like the name but not the fate of the world thing.” Kyra said. “What have you got Teddy?”

Teddy smiled, imagining the original ship.

“Serenity”